La Salle, James Madison stay in hunt

AP photo La Salle’s Ramon Galloway (55) and Taylor Dunn (5) cheer from the bench after a teammate scored against Boise State in the second half of a first-round game of the NCAA tournament in Dayton, Ohio.

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Tyrone Garland led La Salle’s guard-driven offense with 22 points, and the Explorers wrapped up the NCAA tournament’s First Four by getting the better of an old-fashioned shootout, beating Boise State 80-71 on Wednesday night.

The 13th-seeded Explorers (22-9) play fourth-seeded Kansas State on Friday.

Ramon Galloway, one of the Atlantic 10’s top scorers, added 21 points in a fast-paced offense that did pretty much whatever it wanted. The Explorers shot 63 percent from the field — 16 of 22 in the second half.

Thirteenth-seeded Boise State (21-11) got its first at-large bid and was looking for the first NCAA tournament win in its history. The Broncos couldn’t keep up in a game of top-this shooting.

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Anthony Drmic had 28 points for the Broncos, who shot 49 percent while falling to 0-6 all-time in the NCAA tournament.

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JAMES MADISON 68, LIU BROOKLYN 55

A.J. Davis, who stepped in as a starter because James Madison’s leading scorer was suspended for a half, led the way with 20 points as the Dukes beat LIU Brooklyn.

The Dukes (21-14) advance to meet top-seeded Indiana (27-6) on Friday night at the same University of Dayton Arena.

James Madison was without suspended starter Rayshawn Goins for the first half but built a big lead. After the Blackbirds (20-14) battled back to take a brief lead, the Dukes surged again to win going away.

Charles Cooke added 15 points and Andre Nation 14 for the Dukes, who hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game since 1983 and hadn’t played in the big dance in 19 years.

Jamal Olasewere had 20 points and 10 rebounds and C.J. Garner 16 points for the Blackbirds, who have lost in their first game in each of their six trips to the tournament, including the past three years.